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Saturday, March 22, 2014

In short, because of everything surrounding this game, in no order of preference, Rick Nash’s return, the playoff implications and the numerous ex-Blue Jackets playing for the Rangers and vice versa, this one gets my vote for most entertaining game of the season.

“It felt like they were on top of me almost every shot,” Henrik Lundqvist said. “They had someone bumping into me but you kind of like it. It’s an important game. It’s physical. It makes you realize you have to work really hard and fight through screens and the rebounds are huge. You have to make sure you put them in the right place.”

And on a night when the usually reserved Nash was a veritable quote machine, Lundqvist still had the best quip of the night and when he said of counterpart Sergei Bobrovsky, “Lucky him,” that Lundqvist didn’t have to skate the length of the ice to confront him as Bobrovsky and Rick Nash had their angry moment at 17:06 of the second period.

Obviously, the signature moments of the game came with Nash’s confrontation with Bobrovsky and his fight with Matt Calvert.

- The previous blog post with Nash discussing his long-awaited and delayed return to Columbus (obviously, Nash missed the Rangers’ 4-2 win at Columbus on Nov. 7 due to a concussion).

“He’s a big body that goes hard to the net,” said Derick Brassard, who wore the Broadway Hat after scoring the winner to snap the 1-1 tie. “We don’t want him to fight every game, he’s our best player, but things like that happen and when the game is on the line and your best player is showing emotion like that, I think it just lifted our team.”

Regarding the Bobrovsky confrontation, when the goalie prevented Nash from retrieving his stick, Brassard said, “I thought he could have gotten two minutes for unsportsmanlike.”

As for his winner, which came as Brassard swiped at a backhand from the left post that banked in off Bobrovsky, he said, “I was just trying to put the puck in front of the net. I caught him off guard. He was not on his post and when you put the puck toward the net, good things happen and that’s what happened.

“I didn’t know what to do after I scored,” Brassard added. “I was just really excited, especially with the game on t he line. But for Rick, he led by leadership tonight. He showed some emotion, character. he wanted the win and when he fought in the third period our whole bench was standing up.”

In the end, the Rangers jumped over the Blue Jackets into third place in the Metropolitan Division. They have 80 points in 71 games. The second-place Flyers have 81 points in 69 games while the Blue Jackets have 78 points in 70 games. The Blue Jackets also represent the playoff cutoff as they hold the second and final wild-card spot.
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About

ANDREW GROSS covers the New York Rangers for The Record and Herald News, having joined the North Jersey Media Group in November 2007. Gross also covered the Rangers and New York Jets, as well as St. John’s basketball and Army football, for Gannett Newspapers and The Journal News (N.Y.). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a degree in newspaper journalism.